Radio Banana

Out of nowhere comes this alluring, entertaining, yet slightly insubstantial album. Released by the influential label ReR Megacorp, Radio Banana introduced to the world the awkward musical vision of Aki Peltonen, a recording engineer and accordionist. The five pieces on this album, all titled following their instrumentation, use a horn section, accordion, medium-wave radio and drums in various combination to produce music that falls somewhere between Lars Hollmer and Jono El Grande, (i.e. a Scandinavian folk feel paired with mock Latin horns). Brian Woodbury's Variety Orchestra project also comes to mind (minus the Americana aspect). Peltonen tends to overstretch ideas (as in "Finnish Waltz"), but his writing is otherwise quirky and original. The two "Orchestra, Accordion and MW-Radio" pieces are the most successful and striking. The horn licks are sharp and the melodies sketch a vivid imaginary folklore. "Accordion, Drums and MW-Radio" has a tango feel over free-form drumming. More experimental (especially in terms of sound diffusion and treatments), it fails to gel in place. The "Finnish Waltz," despite its exaggerated duration, provides some interesting moments, mainly in the limp it develops in its three/quarter time signature. Three pieces out of five include snippets from medium-wave radio — voices and static. These inclusions often sound gratuitous and add little to the music. Their presence is left unexplained and never rises higher than the odd for oddness' sake. That point aside, Radio Banana will please fans of the aforementioned artists, but it will probably leave them a bit unsatisfied. And puzzled. ~ François Couture, Rovi